Lions Have Last Roar, East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton Football Loses by 3

The high school football game played on East Hampton’s field Saturday was indeed a tough one, the West Islip Lions proving to be the toughest foes the Bonackers had faced this fall, with presumably an even tougher one, undefeated Sayville, looming.

A 5-yard screen pass near the end of the fourth quarter, with East Hampton leading 28-24 at the time, proved to be the proverbial dagger. But the nonstop action leading up to that stunning 65-yard, back-breaking play was gripping, beginning with a game-opening 67-yard, 14-play Bonac touchdown drive in which Theo Ball, East Hampton’s quarterback, Cole Dunchick, Alex Davis and Jackson Ronick — who, with fourth-and-goal from 6 inches out, ran the ball into West Islip’s end zone — played major roles.

The Lions — as they were to do all day — came right back. But East Hampton’s defenders stood them off four times after they’d advanced to a first-and-goal at the home team’s 5-yard line. The line thwarted two rushes, Charlie Stern batted away a third-and-goal pass in the end zone, and Davis, a linebacker on defense, capped the goal-line stand as he tackled the fourth-down runner at the 2, where East Hampton took over.

The Bonackers were to cash in on that second series too, the 98-yard, 17-play drive beginning with two minutes left in the first quarter and ending with six minutes left to play in the second — a length-of-the-field drive, moreover, during which a 55-yard run by Davis was called back because of a blindside block that set East Hampton back on its 15.

No matter. Ball’s first-and-25 pass for Livs Kuplins was hauled in at West Islip’s 49, and, after a 5-yard penalty, Ball connected with Stern for a first down at the Lions’ 44. Two subsequent carries by Davis advanced the ball to the 39. Ball’s third-down pass for Kuplins went incomplete, but on fourth down, Jackson Carney took Ball’s handoff and hit Ronick with an aerial at the visitors’ 22.

Two carries by Davis, the first good for 1 yard, the second good for 17, treated the Bonackers to a first-and-goal at West Islip’s 4, after which Ball threw a dart up the middle to Stern in the end zone. Manny Morales, as he had following Ronick’s touchdown earlier — and as he would following East Hampton’s subsequent scores — tacked on the extra point, upping his and his teammates’ lead to 14-0.

The visitors, however, were not about to go away. They got on the scoreboard with 17 seconds remaining in the half thanks to an 85-yard, 15-play drive capped by Jake Kramer’s 4-yard touchdown carry.

East Hampton kicked off to begin the second half, the receiver fumbled, Pax Minardi jarred the ball loose, and Ronick recovered at West Islip’s 22. But what seemed to be a big break quickly vanished when a first-down floater tossed by Ball, who had been chased, wound up in the hands of his opposite number, T.J. Sonnenberg, at the 18. Sonnenberg ran the ball back to his team’s 41, and the visitors went on from there, Kramer toting the ball primarily before Sonnenberg hit Conor Kenefick with a second-and-goal touchdown pass from the 5. That TD tied things up at 14-14, and served notice that the battle had been joined.

East Hampton needed a big play, and Kuplins obliged, fielding the kick-off moments later at the 15 and running it back all the way, to the delight of his coaches, teammates and the sizable hometown crowd.

The 21-14 lead didn’t last long, however — the Lions replied with a 62-yard, eight-play scoring drive of their own, Sonnenberg’s 8-yard pass for Jovan Brewster in Bonac’s end zone capping it.

Then things began to go a bit south insofar as East Hampton was concerned. A rare fumble by Davis that West Islip recovered at East Hampton’s 36-yard line near the end of the third period led, following another staunch Bonac first-and-goal stand, to a 24-yard field goal by Kenefick that treated the visitors to their first lead of the afternoon, at 24-21, with 9 minutes left in the game.

Davis quickly atoned. A 44-yard touchdown run of his with five-and-a-half minutes left wrested the lead back at 28-24. But a minute later, the cheering that had greeted the Bridgehampton senior’s determined dash through would-be tacklers gave way to stunned silence in the wake of the aforementioned 5-yard screen pass to Kramer, who, behind the Lions’ offensive linemen, who had been released, ran 65 yards for the touchdown that ate Bonac’s dreams.

There were still four-and-a-half minutes remaining, but East Hampton could get nothing going, turning the ball over about three minutes later at midfield following a wobbly, partially-blocked fourth-down pass that Dunchick couldn’t corral at the visitors’ 40, after which Sonnenberg and his fellow Lions ran the clock down in the 31-28 victory.

West Islip’s win improved its record to 5-1 and dropped East Hampton to 4-2. East Hampton head coach Joe McKee said in the postgame huddle that they might well see West Islip again in the postseason.

“There’s a lot of the season left, you can’t fold now. Keep your heads up."